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Tearlach Rosenstein
Tearlach Rosenstein was a pupil of Phillip Ancalya before he was appointed as full-fledged inquisitor in 490.M41. His works include numerous studies on human and alien psykers and he wrote many books and theses about future human evolution. This granted him the brand of radical and it was no surprise that he was accused of being part of the Polypsykana faction. Tearlach's works were so upsetting that High Cardinal Iox finally sent a number of witch-hunters after him. After the d'Anglos Incident 491.M41, Tearlach Rosenstein was declared Excommunicate Traitoris and Extremis Diabolus. Even now, in 999.M41, Tearlach haunts in stories and rumours, and regular reports of him are made in the Bassenheim Triangle. But what are the chances, he must be almost 550 years by now. Imperial records Nothing about Tearlach is commonly known and only inquisitors associated with him in some way or another came to know him. After his fall from grace, even those few denied they ever knew this wretched man. A great deal of mystery shrouds Tearlach and his story. Early Life Tearlach Rosenstein was born sometime around 445.M41. Most likely he was born in a city of Rosenstein, on Velgram's World in the Iox sector. In 450M41, Velgram's World was attacked by an unknown force that took most of the Rosenstein City's habitants as captives and left. Imperial forces were too slow to react for that outrageous act from unknown faction but it was of no use. Velgram's World had lost one of its most thriving cities. Tearlach, in turn, wasn't caught or killed during that day. But the ruins of Rosenstein City were lethal for a four year old child who was starving. This young boy grew into an instinct-driven beast, who ate dead humans and after they were gone, he started to hunt birds, rats, and other animals that populated the area. In couple of years, Tearlach grew into his teens and as he grew in strength and length, also his psychic abilities started to awaken then. He became "verminspeaker", psychic talent of left-alone psykers, who create bonds with animals by psychic means. This in turn turned Tearlach even more feral and inhuman. This much was concluded by inquisitor Phillip Ancalya of Ordo Hereticus, head of Ancalyan's Cabal, when he came to investigate the area near and around Rosenstein City. It was then said that city was tainted by devil and not even outlaws set their foot inside the city's former borders. Tearlach's evergrowing psychic abilities manifested in forms of poltergeist effects and other unusual phenomena inside the city that scared the people of Velgram's World. As inquisitor Phillip Ancalya had no more pressing matters in his hands, he was assigned by Ordos Iox to investigate the city. With his first pupil, Ceridwen Lothringen, inquisitor found out that rogue psyker had lived unnoticed inside the area. Instead of destroying this tainted creature, Phillip Ancalya decided to capture it. In time, Tearlach was captured by inquisitor and his acolyte and shipped on An Romos Prime, where his headquarters were stationed. Back to human It took ten years to retain Tearlach's humanity. During this time, Ceridwen Lothringen was granted a title of inquisitor and she was the one who dubbed Tearlach as "Vermintongue". Phillip named this poor creature after his dead son and the place he was found from and so the rogue-psyker that had terrified the whole planet almost for a decade, was named Tearlach "Vermintongue" Rosenstein, his status as human retained and he was assigned to Schola Progenium Heios. Before his reposition into Schola Progenium, Phillip Ancalya set encarta maleficarum in him, a set of protecting wards incorporated into his cerebral cortex. After all the efforts Phillip Ancalya saw for Tearlach, his new acolyte became stable psyker, and powerful one indeed. In 460.M41 Tearlach's psychic powers were considered as Delta-minus and he became ever more powerful due the rigorous training in Schola Progenium. Phillip Ancalya had also asked primaris psyker Hugh Hanson, former associate of his, to teach everything he knew for Tearlach. When Tearlach reached an age of 25 years in 470.M41, his psychic powers were granted a stamp of "extreme psychic aptitude", Delta-plus. He served as a servant for Canoness-Superior Amelia of Order of White Maiden on Saint Seren's Hope for three more years after what Phillip Ancalya took Tearlach under his wings for good and granted him a title of explicator. Phillip Ancalya shamelessly used Tearlach's natural talent of mind probing psychic powers for interrogating purposes in his investigations. Tearlach even managed to uncover the secrets of forbidden art of changing memories, which is known in certain circles as Memento Solutio. Year before the Incident Tearlach Rosenstein, after his mentor and master gave him more freedom, started his own studies with Phillip's blessings. Tearlach took part in Ordo Xenos's chamber militant's, Deathwatch's, operations and captured great number of psychically highly active samples such as Eldars and Raxan Xenos. In his fourties, 485.M41, Tearlach worked on his little project, named as "Project Assignment", which consisted of massive amount of mind probed data from various races. It was said, that a Deathwatch marine stood for the whole project just a metre behind Tearlach, ready to shoot him if seemed necessary. Tearlach published two theses in 488.M41. First one, "Psyche of Living Beings", consisted mostly of different views of psychic aptitude and average specialization of particular races's psychic powers. Second one, "Homo Sapiens Psykana", was Tearlach's own thoughts and proven points about future human evolution. He thought, that the whole humankind will turn into psychic race, such as Eldars (at least in his accounts). It is no wonder, that his theses were met with such an outburst that Tearlach was on the edge of being burned as heretic, some even compared him to an ancient inquisitor-scholar legend Inquisitor Victor Bassenheim, who was burned in M36 as heretic. With the influence the Ancalyan's Cabal possessed, Tearlach Rosenstein survived this occasion, though his works were strictly restricted for inquisitor eyes only. After couple of years work for Phillip, Tearlach gained a rank of inquisitor which was dubbed due his nature as "scholar-inquisitor". At the time, his psychic powers were considered as "extremely dangerous psychic aptitude" Gamma-plus, year was 490.M41. Crucible of Malediction Even Phillip Ancalyan's best effort had not worked. Tearlach's psychic powers were for some reason unendingly growing and they were just reaching the critical limits. Tearlach Rosenstein, unlike his tutor Phillip or acolyte colleague Ceridwen, joined Ordo Xenos and started his work with Bostrovil Triangle. His breakthrough was, when he discovered a Haven Spire, Eldar corsairs's space station, in the heart if the Bostrovil Triangle and managed to destroy it with no more than eight Deathwatch space marines. During the event, Tearlach came across an item which led him to a journey of discovering its origins. With highly advanced technical devices of Deathwatch he managed to define box's properties, which was essentially: souls. As Tearlach left for his journey, he kind of disappeared from every record, and started to use his alias "Undrad Ulysses". It was these times, when High Cardinal Iox got his hands on Tearlach's theses and decided to destroy this heretic inquisitor. As his suggestions and demands were sent to deaf ears in Ordos Iox, he hired four witch hunters to track down Tearlach. He eventually succeeded in 491.M41, when Tearlach landed on d'Anglos system for unknown reasons. d'Anglos Incident Tearlach, being silent and a bit pitiful man, silently accepted witch hunters's actions when he was captured and sent into d'Anglos's jails. These news were nevertheless fast to travel, and it took no more than two weeks before Ceridwen Lothringen came to rescue Tearlach from the hands of corrupted cardinal. Before that, cardinal demanded a trial against Tearlach, for what the two inquisitors grudginly accepted, it was not their ground then. So a trial was set, important people of the planet's high places sat in high seats and trial begun. After a while Ceridwen and Tearlach came into conclusion that it was no ordinary trial, but a trial to dispose them both for some hideous reason yet undiscovered. The trial went for many hours until its climax, from where Tearlach's fall begun. :“It is of little matter to us who walk in the light of the God Emperor of Mankind. This Tearlach Rosenstein is a dangerous witch and by the guidance of the God Emperor he shall be purified through the cleansing flames!” said the Pontifex Urba Gotthard. :Ceridwen decided to rise of her chair, as Pontifex Urba was just preparing next line, and screamed so hard it made everyone's ears ache. :“I will not tolerate talk like that from a petty preacher of some pathetic frontier world on the edge of forgotten sector!” Ceridwen screamed at Gotthard and whole High Court. “You are only big mouthed hypocrites that firstly have no right and secondly no real reason to scrutinize, not to even talk about judging an agent of the Holy Inquisition, the only institute in this God forsaken sector that works even nearly properly!” These particular lines finally cracked the camel's back and the real point of the trial was there for everyone to see. Armed thugs surrounded the inquisitors and launched volleys of autogun fire against them. Unarmoured as they were, Tearlach was forced to create protective psychic field around the two inquisitors. Hundreds and hundreds of projectiles were captured in a sphere of psychic energy that Tearlach manifested. Unable to run away from the situation, Ceridwen tried to reach the planet's Arbites forces, in vain. It all took just couple of minutes when Tearlach's focus got bit loose and one bullet found its way through the psychic sphere and hit Tearlach's shoulder. This launched series of psychic cacophonies that stretched over the cardinal's palace killing weaker and stronger minds alike and disintegrating those of weaker one. Tearlach's psyche was finally pushed too far and he had cracked encarta maleficarum runes that had been infused in his cerebral cortex. So Tearlach's raw psychic energy was unleashed in unfashioned ways disintegrating anything it touched. Sphere of daemonic psyche exploded in every direction burning bodies in green flames and sending souls straight into warp. Devastation of his psyche was unexplainable. Ever-growing psyche was gamma-plus before encarta maleficarum was destroyed, after the runes were destroyed, it was something between beta and alpha. Ceridwen Lothringen, stood by Tearlach's side and watched the devastation, as she was like a sister to him, and he could not harm her. Raw power of warp flowed like an unstoppable tide across the lands raising buildings to ground and setting their ruins into flames. When ever-raging warpflames and witch-fires were set upon the ruins of d'Anglos metropolises, Tearlach's psyche got ever more brutal and uncontrollable. Ceridwen's report explain that the shape of man itself was shifting, changing and bubbling with furious fashion. Finally, a warp gate was opened in/around the planet that furiously spat demons and their unholy bile on the planet's ever darkening ground. Ceridwen, unable to kill his brother (of a kind), ran away from the planet and saved her own skin, the cardinal world d'Anglos Prime was doomed anyway. After informing every possible authority on planet to evacuate everyone out of the planet, she took her private lander and flew away, leaving Tearlach bursting his unholy energy on planet and cursing her cowardliness. Official records state, that an unknown source declared inquisitor Tearlach Rosenstein Extremis Diabolus. This was later, by astropathic research, confirmed to be Tearlach Rosenstein himself. Though after that, all records were destroyed by Grand Mistress of Ordos Iox and any further attempts to investigate this were halted. Following Years After the warp-gate opened around d'Anglos, the world was consumed by demons and it could not be destroyed by the drifting warp-energy around it. The gate swelled into storm in a matter of weeks and is now known as Storm of Tears. As the investigations started, rogue trader Undrad Ulysses was confirmed as Tearlach Rosenstein. This led into chase through Iox sector, all the way into Pilgrim's Passage and finally into Saint's Rift. Daemonic cults, witch-craft and psychic activity followed the nameless ship of Undrad Ulysses wherever it sailed, until it was finally halted in Menegron system by inquisitorial forces. During this hunt, Ceridwen Lothringen got after Ancalyan's Cabal's istvaanian nature and that Phillip Ancalyan's original ideas concerning Tearlach were to wreak havok in Imperium to let it recover and raise stronger than it were. Puritan to her very core, Ceridwen apprehended the whole Ancalyan's Cabal on Menegron and executed them. During this time all sources about Tearlach's whereabouts got fewer and fewer and when former leader of Ordos Iox High Council was burned of heretic beliefs by Ceridwen in 506.M41, there was no sign of Tearlach anywhere. It was like he had vanished in thin air. Legacy d'Anglos Incident being one of the most devastating events in the whole history of Iox sector, left Heios sub-sector crumbling. Whole planet became swallowed by the warp and nothing could be done. Other demonic incursion were put in Tearlach's doings. Worst of the others include Howling of the Saint's Rift in 504.M41 and Fall of the Menegron Municipalities in 506.M41. After Tearlach's mysterious disappearing in 506.M41, there have been some stressing news of ever-growing warp activity in eastern sectors. Prior the Time of Ending, this was not common, but when Time of Ending started in 750.M41, many other things drew Imperial authorities away from ever-growing danger of demons and abominations in eastern areas. It was not their sector anyhow. Tearlach Rosenstein was never found. Personality After Phillip Ancalya saved Tearlach from Rosenstein City's ruins, Tearlach started to grow some kind of personality. His first years were hard, he had had no contact with humans and he had hard time to get used to their presence. Phillip's efforts to suppress Tearlach's psychic activity was also a factor that made him introvertic and some even said that Tearlach was utterly afraid of other humans. When Tearlach was finally introduced into human society as a young adult, he was silent and utterly obeyed anything Phillip said. His fear of other people vanished when he served in the Schola Progenium Heios, after he found out his own strengths. He still stayed cautious and some might say, paranoid, of other people and regularly used his psychic powers to probe people's minds when communicating with them. This made him appear as empathic and caring individual and Canoness-Superior Amelia Exonos the Pure fell in (according to her, purely platonic) love with him. Tearlach was nevertheless unable to comprehend the whole concept of love at those times and his chastity earned him a nickname of "Disciple of the Saint". Many people, after Tearlach was taken by Phillip as his acolyte, described Tearlach dutiful, hard-working and completely loyal to his master and God Emperor alike. After suppressing of Dorsova Revolt, Tearlach's left leg got broken by frag-missile, which made him vary of all kind of fire-arms. It was uncommon to see him handling one after that, even when he was fairly good marksman. Overall, Tearlach was vary and easily scared individual who rarely spoke anything beside his works. Dutiful and precise, he was loved by many scholars and scientist as well as his rather rash "sister", Ceridwen Lothringen. Appearance When Tearlach reached adulthood, his body was clearly degrading until his fall from grace. Approximately 172 centimetres, Tearlach was rather short, and consisted only of "skin and bones". His originally brown hair turned grey in his thirties and every scratch and chip left mark in his skin. In his last years everyone could see his physical degradation. Tearlach favoured inconspicuous clothing of faded brown and grey colours creating contrast with crimson sash. He never wore armour of any kind, as he didn't actually got into line of fire ever, there was no need to. Tearlach-syndrome As his psychic abilities grew in time, his body got ever more frail, his skin paler and his skull could be seen through his face. In his last years he started to loose hair. Imperium's medical officers named his condition as "Tearlach syndrome", psychosomatic disease when psychic powers gradually destroyed one's body. Abilities and Traits The only skill Tearlach was ever proud of, was flute playing. Tearlach loved music above anything else and he was taught to play long-concert-flute. After destroying the Bostrovil Triangle's Haven Spire, Tearlach was usually seen playing a bone-white flute of his own making. Flute playing was, nevertheless, not the most notable ability Tearlach possessed. He was apt with long-las (especially Mk VII - Vega Maxia pattern) but after his wounding in Dorsova Revolts, he rarely used any kind of firearms. Tearlach's major trait, of which he was known, was his psychic abilities. Started as delta-minus, he grew in forty years into gamma-plus level psyker. Final result was that his body could not contain his psyche anymore, but before that, he was extremely powerful and dangerous psyker. Even when Tearlach was commonly seen as empathic but silent person, he ruthlessly used his powers against other people. Even stating that he was special in itself, Tearlach's strength lied in mind-probing and other powers commonly seen as astropathic talents. During his service in Deathwatch, the space marines reported that Tearlach had a single combat with an Eldar psyker which ended in an explosion of the Xeno. He also discovered the secrets of modifying others's memories which was and is unacceptable in most of the cases. Tearlach was known to utilize this prohibited talent regularly against his subjects. Relations Being mostly shy and introvertic person, Tearlach never formed many relations. Many, like Ceridwen, were known to state that Tearlach was just fine by himself. This was more or less not true, even if Tearlach never formed many relations with other people, through his whole life he formed many bonds with all kinds of animals. This might have been the reason why he stayed so unsocial through his life as animals by nature avoid humans. Phillip Ancalya Mentor and master. Ceridwen, bad from her mouth as she was, dubbed Phillip and Tearlach as the master and his dog. This was not far from truth, as Tearlach clearly had master-servant kind of relation with Phillip and never got the status of real pupil like Ceridwen had had right from the beginning. Phillip's relation with Tearlach was complicated. When Phillip lost his infant son, he was devastated and that finally led, according to later inspections about his career, into his istvaanian path and forming of Ancalyan's Cabal. When Phillip found rogue-psyker, abandoned small boy in the ruins of Rosenstein City, he named this boy after his dead son and regardless boy's dangerously active psychic nature, Phillip took his time trying to make the boy stable. So Phillip saved Tearlach's life, not only from Inquisition or Adeptus Astronomica but from himself too, Phillip gave him a life, taught him to speak, to write and read, to act with people. Their relation was far more complex than any outsider could ever understand, and Ceridwen's statement that they were just a master and his dog, was inappropriate at best. Amelia Exonos Also known as "the Pure", Amelia Exonos was a senior member of Order of White Maiden of Adepta Sororitas chamber militant. When she and Tearlach met, she was Canoness-Superior of her order on Saint Seren's Hope. Old friend of Phillip Ancalya, she agreed to have his acolyte-to-be as her personal servant for couple of years so Tearlach would learn all aspects of Ecclesiarchy and of Sororitas. Spread only in the Sororitas's monastery on Saint Seren's Hope, it was rumoured that Amelia warmed towards Tearlach who was no less than 30 years younger than herself. It is known that these two formed close bonds with each others and was it not for Tearlach's chastity, some say, Amelia might have been fouled. After Tearlach left Amelia's service, they stayed as correspondence friends until 491.M41 and when Phillip requested Sororitas's help to hunt down Tearlach, Amelia did not part the hunt but left her seat as Canoness-Superior and moved into hermit-monastery in mountains of Saint Seren's Hope. Ceridwen Lothringen Often thought to be Tearlach's sister, Ceridwen and Tearlach were by no means relatives of any kind to each others. Ceridwen, almost ten years older than Tearlach, was there to find wretched boy in the ruins of Rosenstein's City. She disliked him from the very beginning but after Phillip taught Tearlach how to speak, how to eat properly and even answer people's questions, Ceridwen grew fond of Tearlach. Tearlach being basically but a child, Ceridwen took her time playing with him as Phillip was occupied with his duties. When Tearlach grew up he was sent into the custody of Amelia Exonos. Ceridwen visited Tearlach from time to time and they grew understanding between each others. Ceridwen, still calling Tearlach a "Vermintongue" or in worst cases "Ratmouth", became close friends and ultimately those two became more or less siblings to each others. This was, however, how everyone seemed to see their relationship. When Tearlach's psychic barriers finally broke down on d'Anglos, Ceridwen refused to kill her "brother" and ran away. d'Anglos, consumed by demons, was lesser evil to her, than killing Tearlach. When Phillip sought Ceridwen, she was brought under questioning, where she stated that Tearlach's form had become inpenetrable and that she could not kill him with her equipment there and then. Phillip then took Ceridwen with him and group of their colleagues, finally tracking Tearlach down on Velgram's World. In the end, Ceridwen declared the whole Ancalyan's Cabal as Ex Imperius Rebellis and executed every single one of them, letting Tearlach go. Official records, mainly written by Inquisitor Ceridwen Lothringen, state that Tearlach was not on the planet but it was an insidious plan of Ancalyan's Cabal to throw the planet into a civil war and chaos. These claims seemed plausible and Ceridwen was granted the title of "Lady Inquisitor" by the High Council of Ordos Iox. Quotes By About Trivia *According to http://www.behindthename.com/ Tearlach means "instigator". *Portrait of Tearlach Rosenstein at the top of the page is actually author's slightly modified self-portrait. *Tearlach Rosenstein was protagonist of "Rosenstein -story", fan-made story that was over 160 pages long. After unfortunate incident, the whole story was lost in bit-space and was never finished. Category:Imperial Characters Category:Inquisitors Category:Characters Category:Psykers Category:Iox